Kanroji Mitsuri

Walking up to the hot spring, Hiroto and Tanjiro felt the heat emitting from it as they got closer.

Looking up at the sky, Hiroto thought, 'It's dark enough, so it should be fine if we let Nezuko join us.'

"Whoaaa, it's so big!!" Tanjiro said, looking at the wide hot spring.

From the corner of Hiroto's eye, he caught an object coming towards him and quickly caught it. "What's this?" Hiroto asked, looking at the object in his hand.

"A tooth? Ew." Hiroto said, disgusted and tossed it towards Tanjiro who caught it.

"Who'd lose a tooth?" Tanjiro asked, looking to the side of the hot spring and seeing a familiar person bathing.

"Ah! It's Shinazugawa Genya!!" Tanjiro yelled out.

Hiroto turned and saw Genya standing in the hot spring with their backs towards them. Genya turned and shouted back, "Drop dead!"

Tanjiro was stunned, but then ignored it and took all his clothes off before jumping straight into the hot spring.

"It's been so long!! How've you been?! You have the same name as the wind pillar!!" Tanjiro shouted.

"Don't talk to me!!" Genya shouted and shoved Tanjiro's head back into the water.

"Hey, play nice now," Hiroto said, taking off his clothes and walking into the hot spring.

"Tsk, bastard," Genya said, walking out and putting his clothes on before storming off.

Hiroto took Nezuko out of her box and brought her into the hot spring with her still in her child form.

"I thought I could be friends with him since we were both in the nude. Man, relationships are hard." Tanjiro said, relaxing his body.

Hiroto washed Nezuko's hair and said, "Not all people think like you."

"Do you think that he's still mad about what you did to him at the Final Selection?" Tanjiro asked.

*splash* Nezuko started to swim and play around the pool.

"Could be, although it's not entirely my fault. He shouldn't have grabbed the girl's hair." Hiroto said nonchalantly, as he began to relax and immerse himself in the soothing hot spring.

After bathing for a while more, the two finished up and went back down the hill with Nezuko back in her box.

Coming to the lodging provided for Demon Slayer's, the two had dinner with Mitsuri. Here, Tanjiro got to witness first hand what it truly means to be a glutton.

"That's amazing!" Tanjiro exclaimed. Hiroto was trying to control Nezuko from running around the place.

"Trust me, Tanjiro. But that's not her final form." Hiroto said as he finished eating.

"Well, I didn't eat that much today actually," Mitsuri said.

"I'm gonna eat a lot and get strong one day too!!" Tanjiro declared. He then thought for a second and added, "Oh yea. The boy you met at the spring was someone from our batch. His name's Shinazugawa Genya."

"Oh!! Is that so…" Mitsuri said, as her voice trailed off. "That'd mean he's Shinazugawa-san's little brother, right? But he told me he didn't have one. Maybe they don't get along? That's so tragic."

"Humph, who would get along with that white-haired bastard anyway. Stabbing people left and right." Hiroto said, irritated as Nezuko lifted her fists in a fighting pose.

"Hiroto… you also stabbed him…" Mitsuri said.

"... *cough* It doesn't matter. From what I remember, you said you had quite a few siblings right?" Hiroto said, diverting the conversation topic.

"Well, I have five and I get along with all of them. I guess the Shinzaugawa brothers are just scary." Mitsuri said as she played with Nezuko.

"Genya still hasn't come here," Tanjiro said worriedly. "I'd love it if we could just chat for a bit."

"Haaa, you're just too kind Tanjiro," Hiroto mumbled as he leaned to the side of Mitsuri as she played with Nezuko.

"Looks like he isn't coming. And he told the villagers he won't eat at all. Maybe he brought something with him." Mitsuri said.

"...I hope he's okay. I'll bring him some leftovers." Tanjiro said, grabbing some of the leftover food on the table.

"Yeah! Great idea." Mitsuri praised. "You should come too, Hiroto. Pleaaase?"

"*sigh* Fine, let's go then," Hiroto grumbled, getting up. The three walked out of the room, with Mitsuri guiding Nezuko along and singing a tune.

"Hey, Hiroto. Do you still have a grudge against Shinazugawa?" Mitsuri asked.

"The wind Hashira? Hmm, you could say so. I mean, you saw how he treated Nezuko. He probably has his own reasons to hate Demons, we all practically do, but that crossed my line." Hiroto said, scratching the scar on his shoulder.

'Wow, the way you're so overprotective of your siblings is so charming Hiroto!' Mitsuri thought as she blushed.

"Kanroji-san, why did you join the Demon Hunters?" Tanjiro asked out of nowhere.

'Oh no, here we go again.' Hiroto asked, remembering back to the time he also asked Mitsuri this question.

Mitsuri started to look embarrassed as she said, "Huh? Me? It's kinda embarrassing… Ohh noo. Should I? See…" Mitsuri began to fidget and cover her face.

She then shouted out, "I joined so I could find a gentleman who would marry me for life!!" She blushed heavily. "Girls actually like men who are stronger than themselves. Girls want to be protected by them! You get it? Maybe this is hard for a man to understand. I mean, Hashira's are strong, right? But it's hard to meet up with them. Well, there are also people who are as strong as Hashira's, like Hiroto! But, I mainly became a Hashira myself so I could meet with them, that's why I worked really really hard at it too."

As Mitsuri went on her rant and got carried away, Tanjiro stood there and started to sweat heavily as he didn't know how to react. Putting a hand on his shoulder, Hiroto said. "It's okay, Tanjiro. Every single person who heard this felt the same way as you."

As Mitsuri kept rambling on and on, they came to where Genya was roomed in and opened up the door to check.

"Aww, Genya-Kun isn't here," Mitsuri said.

"Kanroji-Sama." A girl dressed as the Kakushi came from the side and greeted me. "Your sword will be done very soon. We would like you to come to the workshop so we can make our final touches."

"Awww. Looks like I have to go now." Mitsuri said, a bit sad to have to leave just as she got to meet with the Kamado siblings.

"You want me to see you off, Mitsuri?" Hiroto asked, with Nezuko looking hesitant to part from Mitsuri.

"It's fine. I'll probably have to leave in the dead of night anyway, so you don't have to trouble yourself." Mitsuri said. She then walked forward and hugged Hiroto, saying, "I don't really know if we'll see each other alive next time, but let's just do what we can."

"You always get like this when you have to leave." Hiroto patted her back and said. "Don't be so pessimistic now. Of course, we'll see each other again. You're a Hashira, so nothing can give you trouble."

Mitsuri nodded and separated from him, turning to Tanjiro and saying. "You survived a battle against an Upper Moon. Although your brother was able to kill one himself, that's already a great learning experience for you. There's nothing more valuable than experiencing something like that."

She got down and patted Nezuko, "You two definitely got stronger the last time I saw you. Kanroji Mitsuri fully supports the Kamado siblings!" Mitsuri declared happily.

Hiroto smiled and said, "Thank you. That means a lot to us."

Tanjiro also thanked her and said, "I still have a ways to go. I only 'won' because of big brother and Uzui-san's help. I will work even harder so I can beat Kibutsuji Muzan!"

Hiroto smiled and ruffled his hair, while Mitsuri was pleasantly surprised. She then said, "Tanjiro-Kun, Hiroto, you both got permission to stay here a little longer right?"

"Well, Oyakata-Sama allowed me to stay longer, yes…" Hiroto said.

Mitsuri then whispered into Tanjiro's ear and said, "I heard there's a secret weapon in this village that makes you stronger. Go look for it. Later!" She then left with the Kakushi, with Hiroto and Nezuko bidding her farewell.

Tanjiro stood in a daze and blood started to leak from his nose.

"Oi, careful there. You don't want Obanai seeing you reacting like this to Mitsuri." Hiroto teased.

"Ah-I… This is just from allergies!" Tanjiro said, wiping his nose and turning away.

"Uh-huh, allergies…" Hiroto said, picking Nezuko up and walking to their rooms to sleep. "That's the Love Hashira for you."

----

The next morning, Hiroto and Tanjiro left and went to see what the weapon Mitsuri mentioned was and where it was at.

"I wonder what this weapon Kanroji-san talked about," Tanjiro said.

"Hmm, it should be a sword. We are in the swordsmith village. It would be weird if they made a weapon that wasn't at least a sword of some sort." Hiroto said, carrying Nezuko in the box on his back.

"Mgnhh" Nezuko's muffled voice came from inside.

"See, even Nezuko agrees," Hiroto said.

'... how could you even tell what she says, brother…' Tanjiro thought.

"Well, this is a nice place, but I still smell the hot spring from here. Hmmm, maybe my nose isn't working well because of the hot spring." Tanjiro said, scratching his nose.

Hiroto looked ahead and could see past the trees and there seemed to be two people talking to each other.

"A kid?" Tanjiro asked.

Hiroto squinted and said, "There's someone else there… Hey, isn't that-"